I recently closed three accounts (JC Penney, Citibank Classic Card, Capitol One Classic Card), opened two (a second card with AMEX and a Household Bank Gold Card) and consolidated two MBNA accounts into one, so I was wondering if this kind of activity in the last two months would lower my score and by how much? I have no lates on anything and I paid off some student loans in full early to avoid some interest charges. I think I have 4 inquiries in the last 6 months.
The 4 inquiries include the Household card and second AMEX. The JC Penney and Citibank Classic were among my oldest cards, but I never used the JC Penney card at all. The thing is that I still have two other cards that are as old as these accounts (MBNA and Discover). I usually open up a couple of accounts at a time so that even if I cancel one card later, the other card still gets aged. Regarding debt/income ratios I have less than $100 balance on my higher limit cards (12K) so I think this helps a lot, but I have a $300 balance on two AMEX credit cards. I think AMEX reports the high credit and not the limit so it might hurt me here if my account looks maxed out. I'll just wait 6 months - 1 yr. for my inquiries to get old before checking up on my score.
